Texas Real Estate Business • May 2023

www.REBusinessOnline.com May 2023 • Volume 19, Issue 3 NORTH TEXAS EMERGES AS ENTERTAINMENT MAGNET From rampant growth across all segments of the population to simple cultural preferences, operators have ample incentive to target this region. N By Taylor Williams mographics that entertainment opera-tors covet, including families with chil-dren and young working professionals. High-paying jobs continue to ﬂ ow into DFW in the form of corporate re-locations and consolidations. Devel-oper KDC recently began construction on Wells Fargo’s 850,000-square-foot regional campus in Irving. New pieces of the PGA of America’s headquarters campus in Frisco are coming on line ev-ery quarter and sparking feverish devel-opment in surrounding neighborhoods. Global engineering consultant AECOM and construction machinery manufac-turer Caterpillar are also in the process of relocating their headquarters from Los Angeles to Dallas, among others. orth Texas is attracting new and existing entertainment concepts at a frenetic pace as operators of these facilities seek to position them-selves squarely in pathways of major growth and capitalize on any remaining pent-up demand from the pandemic. According to a 2022 report from the North Central Texas Council of Gov-ernments, the region’s population sur-passed 8 million last year. In addition, more than 20 cities in North Texas — the area that includes and surrounds the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex — saw their populations swell by 10 per-cent or more on a year-over-year basis between mid-2021 and mid-2022. This growth inevitably encompasses key de-The Grandscape Observation Wheel adds a new dimension to the development’s robust lineup of entertainment offerings. With seating for up to eight persons per gondola, entire families can enjoy a ride. A date for two in the VIP glass ﬂ oor gondola is also an option. SEE ENTERTAINMENT page 35 HOW TO CURATE UNIQUE RETAIL EXPERIENCES IN POST-PANDEMIC MIXED-USE ENVIRONMENTS By Barry Hand, principal at Gensler n a recent tour of a name-brand cor-porate campus, the host carefully explained to our team that his com-pany’s policy regarding working from home (WFH) and returning to the ofﬁ ce (RTO) remained loose as they complet-ed a “year of learning.” This “learning” presumably involved listening to staff, observing who badges in when and where, experimenting with what works and what doesn’t and re-solving the best way to get their arms around the most effective policies. As often seems to be the case, the tastes and preferences of consumers who drive these design and development trends are in a state of ﬂ ux. I This explanation has surely been giv-en repeatedly in recent years. It appears most companies prefer to bring their people back to the ofﬁ ce, but they also want to adopt policies that will work best for employees and customers, as well as the future of their organizations. While there are outliers that have in-stituted clear return-to-ofﬁ ce directives, most ﬁ rms are adopting change man-agement strategies organized around at-tracting staff back to the ofﬁ ce. They are doing this by leaning on experiences and Pictured is a rendering of a streetscape of Fields West, a 190-acre mixed-use development in Frisco. The project has been designed with the post-pandemic shopping and dining experience in mind and will feature a high level of walkability and numerous open spaces. SEE CURATION page 38 INSIDE THIS ISSUE Why Sports-Anchored Entertainment Districts Are Complete Game-Changers pages 28-29 A New Subcategory of Industrial Begins Attracting Investors' Attention pages 32-33